L-A Radio: KPCC Changing Name to LAist 89.3

Los Angeles’ most popular FM public radio station, KPCC, will rename itself LAist 89.3, the station’s management announced Tuesday.

The L-A Times reports the on-air change, set to take effect in the coming weeks, is part of a broader move by the station’s Pasadena-based operator, Southern California Public Radio, to consolidate its radio, podcast, digital and events offerings under the LAist name (pronounced EL-EY-ist) going forward.

The new name for the broadcaster’s flagship radio channel will be the biggest change noticed by loyal KPCC listeners, who can still expect the same mix of national NPR programming, local news reports and on-air personalities like Larry Mantle.

Southern California Public Radio president and CEO Herb Scannell hopes the move will end years of what he called “brand confusion” at Southern California Public Radio, which touts a staff of around 200 and more than 600,000 cumulative on-air listeners. Until now, its journalists identified themselves as working for both KPCC and its sibling website and digital brand, LAist, which the broadcaster acquired in 2018.

Scannell said the decision was informed by audience testing. “Ironically enough the awareness for both KPCC and LAist was not high, but people thought they actually knew LAist more,” Scannell said.

The LAist name change will also apply to Southern California Public Radio’s other radio channels across the region, which will be known as LAist 89.1 KUOR (broadcast from Redlands), LAist 90.3 KVLA (Coachella), LAist 89.9 (Santa Barbara) and LAist 89.5 KJAI (Ojai).

The station’s federal broadcasting license belongs to Pasadena City College — that’s what the “PCC” stands for — which started the station in 1957 under the call sign KPCS-FM as a training environment for students. The students operated a low-watt broadcast from cramped quarters on campus with funding from the college’s board and federal grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.